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crested spoon by IS

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Author	Topic: crested spoon by IS
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 09-21-2008 06:46 PM This is a Colonial period Hanoverian teaspoon of unknown origin, which belongs to an acquaintance. The mark appears to be IS (but could be an inverted SI), and there is an unusual, crude, and apparently swaged, crest on the handle -- a feature rarely (if ever) seen on American spoons. The crest represents the heraldic "Pious Pelican" discussed in the thread TH? Eng? American????. I cannot identify the mark, and although engraved crests are fairly common, I have not seen such a swaged crest before on an American spoon. The worn swaged shell on the back of the bowl also is unfamiliar, having unusually short rays. The engraved initials on the reverse of the handle are of the Anglo-American form, W/S*S. IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 09-22-2008 06:47 PM An interesting and unusual spoon. I suspect the pelican may have looked less crude before she became so worn. I imagine the spoon might be of English origin - such fancy front spoons with die-struck (swaged) decoration were relatively popular here in the mid 18th century though the pelican is, I think, a rare subject. There are all too many makers with the right initials for me to risk a stab at attributing the mark. IP: Logged
argentum1 Posts: 602 Registered: Apr 2004	posted 09-22-2008 07:31 PM Pious or impious, that is one strange rendition of a pelican. I realize that liberties are taken by engravers/illustrators but this one seems to have stretched even those liberties. I am not questioning the explanation in the other post just making a comment. Still a very interesting piece. IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 09-23-2008 10:21 AM It does indeed bear scant resemblance to a real-life pelican but it follows closely a traditional heraldic depiction of the bird in her piety (e.g. as illustrated in Fairbbairn's Crests - Plate 44(1) in my 1986 edition). Whether I am right to suggest an English origin must remain questionable. Here are a couple of English teaspoons of circa 1750 for comparison. The phoenix on the first one is the nearest I have to a pelican and the second with Minerva's head is there simply to provide a further fancy front example. The two spoons show that the decoration is normally carried further down the front of the stem than is the case with the pelican, but I suppose there may once have been some engraved decoration, now worn away, below the swaged image. IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 09-23-2008 07:03 PM Perhaps I should have added that the images struck on English fancy front spoons are not crests but simply decorative. They are often, perhaps mostly, derived from classical mythology. Any symbolism would have probably been more apparent to a classically educated ownership back then than it is to most of us today. IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 09-23-2008 10:27 PM Probably in its strictest sense that applies to this one as well, as I can not make out a torse, which would form the base of a correct heraldic crest. Thanks for posting your examples, although I must say that from the handle and bowl shapes I would not have judged them quite that early. Colonial American silversmisth's (or buyers) must have been more conservative or traditional in the styles they followed. Could this one, if not American, be provincial English or Scottish? IP: Logged
agphile Posts: 798 Registered: Apr 2008	posted 09-24-2008 09:40 AM The Minerva spoon can be confidently dated to 1748-50. It has the mark of Elizabeth Jackson, entered in 1748 as a widow. She re-married and entered a new mark as Elizabeth Oldfield in 1750. I agree that the Phoenix may be later. It is a blatant duty dodger, struck twice with a blank punch and the marks then closed up to disguise this as the spoon was finished. The benefit of duty dodging should have ended in 1757 when duty ceased to be collected item by item, hence my suggested dating, but the naughty practice of avoiding the assay on some pieces did continue. Without the influence of the false marks I would possibly have gone a bit later and said something like c.1760-65 as the date for this one. These fancy front spoons were at the more expensive end of the market - extra silver for the thicker stem to accommodate the decoration plus the cost of the die and the extra work in the making. Their makers may therefore have been among the first to introduce new fashions. This too could account for details such as bowl shape seeming ahead of its time compared with the suggested date. I cannot recall seeing any fancy front spoons by English provincial makers but if they exist I would not expect them to be very different from London examples (and I have little knowledge when it comes to Scotland or Ireland). That said, if I had come across the Pelican spoon over here: I would have wanted it I would have assumed it to be provincial or colonial which doesn't take us any further, I fear. IP: Logged

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